David Russell

Name: David “Dave” Russell

Gender: Male

Age:17

Grade:12th

School: Aurora High School

Hobbies and Interests: Volunteering (student volunteers club member); painting (art club member); baseball (baseball team member)

Appearance: Dave stands at an average height of 5’8” and weighs in at 138 lbs, giving him something of a lean build. He is Caucasian.

His ginger hair manages to look messy and unkempt despite its relatively short length, not helped by the fact that it is nearly always kept propped up by a headband, the design of which changes as regularly as Dave changes his clothes. His thick brown eyebrows sit above his large round green eyes, and his nose is relatively straight but with a thick bump in the bridge. His mouth is rather small for the rest of his face whilst his chin is quite pointed. He can often be seen with an excess of ginger stubble, due to shaving rarely and having fast growing hair. This, combined with his untidy hairstyle, often gives him a rather shaggy appearance.

At the time of abduction Dave was wearing a white button shirt and a pair of worn blue jeans, black trainers, and a green pattern tie-dyed headband.

Biography: Amanda and Taylor Russell, an American couple with no immigrant immediate ancestors, were born thirty years too late. They were both enthralled with the ideals of the sixties, despite neither being born when the decade was around, after having heard the tales of rock and roll and freedom from their own parents. They spent their own young adulthood traveling across America whilst singing praises of peace and love whilst the world had moved on to the nineties, and the young couple were spreading their own liberal ideals when their free love resulted in the conception of David Russell.

The two were unprepared for a son, to say the least. Neither were particularly financially stable or all that familiar with children, but their own values spurred them to give it a chance, even if it did mean settling down from their partying. Taylor got a stable, boring career as an assembly line worker, which he has barely advanced from in seventeen years due to total apathy towards his job, whilst Amanda stayed at home as a housewife, happily avoiding the responsibility of employment. The two settled for an apartment in Rainier Valley, Seattle, back in their home city where the support of their parents was at least local. In eight and a half months, Dave was born without complication.

Even with their small income and a change in living that brought about a fair bit of depression in the parents, they tried their best to give Dave a healthy upbringing, instilling in him the spirit of the sixties that had stayed fervent in their hearts.

As a lively and energetic child, happy to make friends and good at doing so, Dave was a friendly face around the playground in elementary school. He could easily be counted on to join in on any misadventures that were going on, the odd few getting him into trouble with the staff. However, Dave was never an outright troublemaker, and the genuine remorse felt over getting in trouble dissuaded any real discontent of the teachers towards him, not to mention Dave lacked the ability to ever really defy anyone due to a disdain towards causing conflict, a trait he still retains to this day.

Though the area he grew up in was rough, Dave kept to the lessons his parents had taught him and thought of everyone else around him before himself. In his young age his opportunities for helping others were limited to gestures of good will and affection, but he tried his level best to help those in need when he saw the chance. Whilst there were some who appreciated this, others were inevitably irritated with his insistence on helping even if it wasn’t really necessary. Dave still has difficulty telling where he’s really needed to this day, though he has learned how to take a rejection by now.

Unfortunately his parents’ attempts to instill good will in him have gone a little too far, as now he feels compelled to help whenever an opportunity arises, leading to outright guilt and shame if he does not attempt to lend a hand. For this reason, he eventually started overworking himself, as Dave now volunteers at any opportunity that arises, be it working with the homeless, elderly, sick, impoverished, youths, or anything else that needs help.

As a generally likeable person and an easy talker, Dave tended to have little trouble with meeting the new faces and integrating himself with the new groups this puts him with. The one exception is volunteering with animals, as Dave finds that many animals seem to dislike him, though an expert would point out that it’s most likely because he becomes nervous around them. Though he has become used to all the volunteering by now and it has all served to give him reasonable endurance, he still overexerts himself unnecessarily rather frequently. His parents are generally too absorbed in their own concerns to notice Dave constantly being out so often and coming home so tired, and as he never complains they assume nothing wrong of it.

As Dave grew older, his interest began to develop beyond random games on the playground. Art class was a favourite of his, especially opportunities to paint, something his mother was happy with. She had been an aspiring artist before Dave had been born, and even though that had been taken from her she was happy to share the psychedelic styles replicated from the sixties into her modern day son, and thus skills were passed down from mother to son. Dave only paints for fun, being too occupied to invest much time into developing his skill or gaining any real expertise, but he enjoys the art for its own sake regardless.

Meanwhile, the music that his dad loved so much from the era was played around the house constantly. His dad never bothered to try and teach his son guitar, despite playing his own regularly, and in fact Dave became rather sick and tired of rock and roll after learning that other genres exist. However, he could never bring himself to tell his dad that, so he settles for quiet acceptance in the kitchen and a pair of earplugs in his bedroom.

Whilst he was exploring new things, Dave’s parents' own interests began to resurface, leading to many family trips out of Seattle to see America again. Dave was not invited on these trips. He often wound up in the care of his grandparents when he was younger, and as he became an older teenager he was eventually left to look after himself in Rainier Valley whilst his parents went on tours of the country. His grandparents have gotten into a number of fights with his parents about these long periods of absence, but they cannot bring themselves to make a case out of their own children in regards to Dave’s treatment. Dave has yet to let himself believe that his parents’ frequent absences bother him.

Whilst before Dave’s Grandparents were as involved in Dave’s life as much as most grandparents in his early years, they started becoming more present in it after his parents began to take their trips out of Seattle. Concerned for his well-being with his parent’s indifferent attitude towards him, they would often invite Dave around to their house for attention and cash gifts, as well as paying for expensive treats such as Prom tickets or new clothing., though Dave tries to be financially independent in spite of his limited allowance. As a result, Dave has become closer to his grandparents in more recent years.

At Aurora High, Dave is still the friendly and outgoing person that he was in elementary school, giving him a good reputation around the school and a respectable circle of friends. His overly helpful attitude can still make him come off as insufferable to some students, however, and he has been known to be somewhat oblivious to subtle barbs or people's underlying nature. He enjoys the company of his friends and on occasions when he is not looking for someone in need, he looks for someone to hang out with instead. When people do express distaste towards him, he often takes it to heart and distances himself from the offending person, though he has been known to get over such things quite quickly too.

Dave has joined two clubs at Aurora: the art club, of which he is still an active member, and the student volunteers association, the latter of which fell into disuse in his junior year and has since gone inactive. The decay of the group troubled him greatly, as he enjoyed getting to meet students with similar motivations to him, so lately he has resolved to try and bring it back to its former glory before he leaves school. However, due to his other commitments and poor organisation skills, he has had little success with this.

Academics are not Dave’s strong point. He has never really had a knack for knowledge, usually living life by the moment instead of worrying how to solve problems ahead, and so often ends up averaging a C with the occasional slide into D territory which isn't helped by his constant volunteering when he could be studying instead. Never the less, he hopes to go to college and obtain an education major, regardless of the level, so that he can join the Peace Corps after college and help children in need around the world.

Whilst he still maintains a good level of endurance by virtue of constantly being occupied by one task or another, Dave has never possessed much interest in sports. However, at the encouragement of a friend, Dave started playing baseball for fun when he was twelve years old. Over the years he has kept it as a hobby, enjoying the chance to be a part of a team as well as the company of the other players. However, he possesses no natural aptitude for the sport, nor has he made much of an improvement over the years of casual play. As a result he’s usually kept on the bench for most of the team’s matches, as his poor level of skill brings little to the field, but he remains an enthusiastic member of the team regardless.

Dave has only ever had one girlfriend in his life, Lana Torres, and for a while he intended to keep it that way. The two went out for around half of their junior year but eventually they grew apart, their romantic exploration limited to making out at the most. Dave was happy for the experience but considered himself too busy to treat a girlfriend as she would deserve at the time. Recently, however, he has started to miss her, despite them remaining on good terms, and is trying to decide if he can bring himself to approach her for another romantic relationship. He has never had any significant interest in the same sex so he considers himself comfortably straight.

Whilst his spare time is generally dominated by working towards the needs of others, the moments not filled with painting are usually spent hanging out with friends or trying to accomplish as much homework as he can fit in; otherwise he’s usually too exhausted to do much beside eat and sleep.

At this point in life Dave is well aware of how much he pushes himself compared to some of the people around him, but he finds no reason to fault this. He has a comfortable social circle, a plan for his future, and a happy home life, at least from his perspective. His low income household has never really been a reason to bother him, and his constant acts of good will keep him satisfied with himself and where he is at this point in time.

Advantages: Dave has a good reputation around Aurora High School, a respectable social circle to match, and is comfortable approaching and interacting with new people, so finding and making allies will most likely prove easy for him. His constant activity means that he has a fair deal of endurance, reducing the amount of rest he will require on the island.

Disadvantages: Dave is obsessed with helping others, which will be a significant hindrance when it comes to keeping himself alive. He also lacks any real intelligence or cunning, and his limited exposure to violence means that the shock of the island may be too much for him.

Designated Number: Male student No. 017

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Designated Weapon: Novelty Gun (clearly not a real gun, opens to reveal a flag which reads "BANG!")

Conclusion: Let's be real, this is SOTF; the only way M017's helping anyone is assisting himself into an early grave. I'd rate his chances at less than none - the kid's gun looks more legit than he does. - Jim Greynolds

'The above biography is as written by Slamexo. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Slamexo

Kills: None

Killed By: Jumped off cliff

Collected Weapons: Novelty gun (assigned weapon)

Allies: None

Enemies: None

Mid-game Evaluation: Dave's affair on the island was miserably brief. Cracking under the torment of watching his teacher and other people die, Dave walked in a stupor around the northern cliffs until he walked straight off of them, crashing into the rocks below and dying immediately.

Post-Game Evaluation: Blinked and I missed him. - Jim Greynolds

Memorable Quotes: "Hi guys. Bye guys." - Last words.

Other/Trivia

 * Dave was the first character to die in Version 5.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Dave, in chronological order.

The Past:
 * Improving La Pieta with a Geologist's Hammer

Pre-Game:
 * Recruitment Drive
 * Stars and Bucks
 * (Vice) Presidential Elections

Prom:
 * Rationally Early
 * Mary Jane's Sanctum
 * Coming Down

V5:
 * Sleep, My Dear

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Dave Russell. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''


 * Darkly amusing - the scenario was so grim and despairing that it almost wrapped around to being funny. It's a credit to Slam though that, in spite of being a one post in and out, that the death didn't feel totally throwaway. Surprising and abrupt? Definitely, but that's a staple of the first death. Most importantly, it made sense. - Namira
 * Well-played, Slam. Well-played. But seriously, Dave's one post and death was pretty good for a first death compared to certain other deaths. Not perfect, but considering it's status it really was goo. - Espional
 * Was not expecting it, but I think that was the idea. Dave was one of my "Kids to watch" for awhile. When he walked past Virgil trying to pull Michelle from over the edge though, I couldn't help but think of this. Having read his profile and other threads he was in, I always thought he would have helped. I think he was originally meant to die alone, but there was only this cliff to walk off of, and there were already people there. Nonetheless, wonderfully written. - Nuggets
 * I enjoyed writing Dave in pregame. However, it occured to me closer to the start of V5 that I had no plans for him. Whilst this would normally not be such a deterrant for me, the issue became excacerbated by the fact that I could not see Dave's plot deviating from 'Dave runs around crying, does something stupid, dies'. Since I was more interested in writing my other two characters at this point, I decided to save myself and Dave the drawl of being dragged out into fodder and just cut him off straight away. To that extent, I'm quite happy with the result. - Slamexo
 * I'm likely going to take a bit of flak for saying this, so I'm going to preface it by stating that the post in which Dave threw himself to his death was well written and solid conceptually. That said, on a meta level, I can't help but wish Slam had discovered a way to cut off the character without taking away major focus on an ongoing thread. It both debilitated the ongoing scene, and also somewhat cheapened Dave's death for me to have him explode into the thread and then immediately dive off in a single, contained post. Naturally, the reasons Slamexo outlined above hold valid, and it also contributed another traumatic moment for the students already interacting. I can't help but feel, however, that the first death of V5 would've been better served in a place where we could fully appreciate it's weight and significance. In any case, godspeed, David Russel. You went out with a witty quote and with an emotional, heartfelt sendoff. That's more than many of us can hope for. - NotAFlyingToy
 * I think Greynolds spoke for all of us there. - ChainmailleAddict
 * From start to finish, every aspect of Dave's storyline--from being ignored by his parents, to his preudo-rejection by Lana, to being fed pot-brownies in the bathroom at prom--points to one conclusion regarding his character: Dave's decisions don't really count for much. Many characters feel like pieces in a chess game being played by greater entities; Dave feels like the board. This is well illustrated by his very first appearance, when his attempts at resurrecting the Volunteer Club serve only to provide a backdrop for more significant character interactions. It is entirely fitting, then, that on-island the only thing he has time to accomplish is to set the tone of the first round of deaths. Bravo, a suitable end for the young man. Though it does bear mentioning that yes, it probably could have been timed a little better. - AMikeCk